Random Derby Thoughts

racetoday said:
Thanks for the stories Lou and Jay... keep going. I think it's safe to say, most of us here on the board will be rooting for you guys !! :clapping:

This is really a great sport when you think about it.
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OK, OK, I have a Mark Jarvis story.

I'd actually played and beat Mark in a DCC match back in the days of the EW. Flash forward many years and I'm up in Chicago playing in a Red Shoes 1pocket event a couple of years ago and am warming up by my lonesome. So Mark comes up and asks to warm up with me and I say, "Sure."

So I rack for him, we exchange a couple of safeties, he runs a few, and I run out. Next game, I break, we exchange safeties, he screws up, and I run 8-and-out again. And he says,"I can't warm up with you. You're playing like we're playing for $100 a game." And he goes over to play someone else on another table. I was kinda stunned because the funny thing was that I wasn't taking long to shoot and was just plinking the balls. It was just one of those days that was playing pretty well and in fact I finished 2nd to Piggy Banks that event.

Lou Figueroa
pool playars
whew
 
lfigueroa said:
Yes, it was fantastic, dub.

So here's one udder thing that happened and I am not saying *in any way* that it would have changed the final outcome but here it is:

I believe it was the second game and after several safety exchanges, Francisco screws up and leaves me a shot. I'm shooting to the right pocket.

So I get up and start to run balls and its pretty wide open. I run four and am down on number five in the run. Now, at this point I will confess to being totally locked in in terms of concentration and the table. After all, I am playing Francisco Bustamonte, in the sixth round of the DCC, in the main tournament room, and I have a chance to run out and win a second game to go 2-0. I am down on the eleven ball by his side pocket and all I have to do is make the ball and draw back to the right some six to eight inches to get on the sixth ball which will automatically lead to the last two balls I need.

And I am down on the shot and as I'm about to pull the trigger I hear from one of the players behind me on the adjoining table (a white guy wearing a black doo-wop rag, whom I believe may be from Chicago) say something like, "I just don't want to wait 15 minutes to shoot my next shot" and some another unhappy comments.

I was mid-trigger when it entered my brain stem and I should have just stood up and apologized for monopolizing that side of the table and told the guy to go ahead and shoot. But I didn't and made the shot but dogged the draw, with the ball barely coming back an inch and left myself no shot.

Afterwards the guy's opponent came up to me and sort of apologized and said, "He totally sharked you -- you were running out, playing perfect position before that." Me, I always thought the guy on a run got priority for table position anywhos. In any case I was so locked in I was totally unaware the guy wanted to shoot from that side of his table.

So, that's tournament life. I blame myself and should have just stood up.

Lou Figueroa
but I didn't
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That's brutal.

Just brutal.
 
lfigueroa said:
It's OK -- my own fault for not standing up off the shot.

Lou Figueroa
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Well, yeah...happens to all of us, we should know better, and stand up to start over. But not all of us are playing Bustamonte in the late rounds of a major tournament. You shouldn't have had to.
 
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